Jude Kelly of the Southbank Centre criticises the skateboarders of Southbank essentially for not playing nice and agreeing to move out of the iconic undercroft space under the Queen Elizabeth Hall to make way for the Centre's £120 million redevelopment.

The undercroft has been the skaters' home for the best part of half a century and is the longest continuously skated "found space" in the world. Despite its iconic status, the space's long-term users were not consulted prior to the unveiling of the original plans. Now the Southbank is keen to convey its shock and disappointment that the skaters would go so far as to pursue legal avenues to safeguard their space.

Under the proposals, the skateboarders have been offered an alternative site 100 metres up river, a disused car park which when it was built itself displaced a skate spot know to skaters as "Birdshit Banks".

If the Southbank genuinely believes the proposed new space is of equal value to the undercroft, they could surely build the coffee shops and restaurants required to fund the redevelopment project there. However the Centre's management have themselves stated that the café chains need to occupy the site of the current skate area because it is more visible and therefore more profitable.

This argument would sit more easily with a commercial developer than an organization in receipt of public subsidy to foster the arts and culture of the capital.

None of the new arts facilities will be located in the visually important riverfront space. The children’s centre, workshops and the public flat floor space that Jude Kelly touts enthusiastically will be tucked away out of view.

The Southbank’s key argument seems to be that the end justifies the means and giving over the prime riverside frontage to retail is a reasonable quid pro quo for the new facilities. The same rationale could justify demolishing the Queen Elizabeth Hall, building a mini-Westfield there, and relocating to a bigger site on less valuable land.

It is the Southbank Centre itself that is "missing the bigger picture" as indicated by the massive backlash that has taken them by surprise, running to date to more than 40,000 petition signatures from a diverse cross-section of Londoners.

London does not need another parade of anodyne cafés and chain restaurants. The Centre has already created quite enough of these under the Royal Festival Hall next door.

Should Arts Council money be being used to appropriate public space and destroy a unique and vibrant part of London’s indigenous cultural life? Maybe this argument is bigger than just the Southbank Centre itself.

Adam Spensley, teacher and skateboarder, spokesman for Long Live South Bank